NEO-VIPER v3

Here we are with a third version of the Neo-Viper already and it was still just 2002 when this one came out. They were really milking their designs for all they were worth. This one came packaged with a HISS tank. Now even though the HISS tank is my favorite G.I. Joe vehicle of all time the one that this guy came with sucked. Other than the distinctive treads it looked nothing like the classic HISS tank that I love so I passed on it. I had to get this guy loose out of package from ebay or one of the other Joe sites I used to buy from, I don’t remember where. Nowadays I try to stick to buying strictly from ebay as opposed to the other sites. I know some people have problems with ebay but I think that’s more on the seller side of things, as a consumer I’ve never had any problems. I did have a few issues with those other third party sites though. One guy didn’t send me my Joes I ordered for over 6 months. He emailed me and even called me to apologize and to say he’d send them next week or something but they never showed up. Other people were having the same problem and were razzing him on the Joe message boards. I had a few good transactions with this guy before so waited as long as I could before I called Visa and told them to reverse the charges. After that happened he called me and told me his Joe website had been causing him so much stress that he was in the hospital because he tried to kill himself. I didn’t know this guy at all, not what he looked like or anything and he was calling me with this? I felt bad for the dude but whoa, he needed to chill out. I got my money refunded and I never heard from him again. Oddly enough a few weeks later my figures showed up. I hope it worked out alright for that guy. There was another scandal with another well known online Joe vendor around the same time. This guy was bidding on his own auctions to jack up the prices and somebody found out about and blabbed to the rest of the online community. That caused a whole big ruckus and he was ousted from the community like Frankenstein’s monster being chased out of town by villagers with pitch forks and torches. Needless to say that after those two incidents I figured I would just stick to ebay.

Now this third version of Neo-Viper is pretty weak compared to the first two. I find his solid dark blue coloring very bland. This might be a good time to talk about what I actually do like about the Neo-Viper design though. I like that his outfit harkened back to the classic blue shirt trooper of the 80s but that it seemed to be a functional and sensible update. The guy appears to be padded all over but especially armored on the head and chest where it really matters. The helmet has a very unique design unlike any trooper that came before him. The ball jointed shoulders seem to bulk him up and the dark goggles give him a robotic air of menace that never came across in the old blue shirt design. Good sculpt, but weak colors this time around. 5 out of 10.

I can’t believe you willingly pushed a man to his deathbed for a Joe figure. Well worth it I hope.

Ebay can suck when people pad their profit with ridiculous shipping costs. I still use it when I can combine shipping on orders to the point that it makes sense, but often, one item is not worth it for me.